Thailand

For spring break I went with three guys to Southern Laos. We rented motorbikes in Pakse and then road out towards Paksong to see waterfalls. Our first night we stayed in a village created as a conservation area for the natural environment and 8 different tribes. They served us breakfast and dinner made entirely from organic ingredients grown on site. All of the structures were made from fallen timber, no trees were cut for construction. We had no guidebook and this place prided itself on being completely unadvertised so the fact that we had stumbled into it reinforced my really positive feelings towards traveling with an open mind and an open itinerary.

The waterfalls are so epic! Each one has it’s own appeal. Tall ones, wide ones, some were good for swimming, some were good for jumping into, some had caves behind them, they were all incredible. Finding them is fun too. You just pick a road to ride down and then sooner or later you see a painted wooden sign with a picture of a waterfall. you follow a dirt road to a person who wants a little bit of money and then you climb down some steep steps or a mossy ladder or you cross a creaky suspension bridge and voila! If you have a good map you can ride out past all the painted signs to the waterfalls that don’t have people who want money standing at the gates.
Riding motorbikes is really the only way to see the waterfalls. There were no taxis, no tuk tuks, no buses, there were barely even any guesthouses. The roads were smooth and traffic was sparse. I would bottle the feeling of cruising those hilly roads with the mountains on either sides, the kids yelling “Sabaidee!”, and the occasional cow crossings if I could and let you all take a sip. It was oddly comforting to feel that free so far from everything I’d known before.
After a couple days in Laos my traveling buddies and I parted. They went back into Thailand and I went south to the border of Cambodia. I’d heard horror stories of people getting ripped off really badly at the border crossing so I was expecting the worst. But I paid the correct amount and got through customs easily. Of course there has to be a catch and in this case the catch was the transportation. Traveling in Laos and Cambodia is sucha  hassle. Distances that should only take 5 hours to cross get turned into 12 hour trips because of crumby buses and tourist scams. The drivers go slowly and take the long routes so that they can get commission from the restaurants and guest houses  you are forced to use along the way. I usually pack my own food for these bus rides because the food at the places they bring you too is always greasy and over priced. If I had a bigger budget transportation would be the item I’d splurge on. I can handle non air conditioned rooms and noodle soup for every dinner but sitting on those buses all day is really annoying.
In Cambodia my first stop was the capitol, Phnom Penh. I went to the killing fields, the genocide museum, and the national museum. Not typical spring break material, I know. But I wanted to try to understand the history of Cambodia a little bit better. Cambodia has only been open to tourism since the late 90’s because of the Khmer Rouge. Pol Pot (Saluth Sar, the Prime Minister of Democratic Kampuchea) was trying to purify Cambodian society by ridding it of intellectuals and foreign influence. He did this by forcing people out of the cities and into the country side, then he gathered educated people and anyone who opposed the government into death camps. Depending on the severity of the crime, people were tortured for 2-7 months before being killed. They killed women, children, monks, elderly, anybody. The people who did the killing were mostly younger people who had been brain washed or threatened enough to feel that they had to follow out Pol Pot’s commands. Pol Pot had strict rules about exporting rice, as a result most of Cambodians were starving in order to meet the quota. He also enforced rules about medical practice, education, communication. These rules effectively weakened the minds, bodies and spirits of the Cambodian people. 1.7 million people, about 27% of the population was killed before the invasion of Viet Nam caused Pol Pot to go into hiding. Pol Pot died in 1998 and the officers from the death camps are just now being charged with crimes against humanity. This still tender history is why traveling in Cambodia is such a unique experience.

My next stop was Siem Reap. There is no reason to ever go to this town except to see Angkor Wat. Angkor Wat was a sacred Khmer city in the early 12th century. During this time India, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Burma, and Vietnam were coming together in a cultural soup. Hinduism, Buddhism, and animism were the prominent religions of the region and each influenced the design of Angkor Wat. The temple complex was built during the rule of Suryavarman II in honor of Vishnu, the Hindu God of the universe.
The temple complex is about 12k outside of Siem Reap. I had found a temple guide wedged into the seat of my tuk tuk the night before, so armed with that I rented a bike with a basket on the front and went. the most common way to see the temple grounds is to hire a tuk tuk driver. Since I was by myself I didn’t want my time in between temple ruins to be spoiled by small talk with a guide. Plus, after sitting on a bus all day a +24k sounded fantastic.


Khmer architecture is unbelievable, especially in contrast to the dilapidated state of the buildings in Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. The temples are constructed from sandstone. Every block of stone is carved with dieties, demons, or Aspara dancers. I really really wanted to sit peacefully and let the magic of this place sink in but the reality of this place was hard to appreciate because around every corner, down every corridor there were little kids trying to get me to buy stuff. I spent most of my time feeling like a jerk because I had to keep saying NO to these little kids. They don’t take NO for an answer either. They will follow you around reciting information about your country of origin or about how unfair it is that you wont give them money. Most of them don’t actually speak English well enough to understand phrases like, “You are ruining my temple experience!” They just have certain facts and phrases memorized. Although a few of them did surprise me with their command of the language. I soaked up as much magic as I could and then went back to my hostel. Getting back to Bangkok took about 3 times longer than it should have.
Here’s a little update on the trash removal project. While I was gone a few of the guys that had been involved with the primary trash pick-up parties organized a day for the school kids. They rounded up some students from the elementary school that we had previously cleaned around and put them to work. The filled another round of trash bags (not sure how many but 40 come in a pack) and when they were down they had pizza and played frisbee. While they picked up trash they made up a pretty catchy song about how having a clean environment is fun- Yogi played guitar. Most of the kids had never had pizza before. I think when it happens again this weekend we’ll get them something else, they didn’t really like it. Or course they liked frisbee.